Marine wave damage, such as shoreline erosion, damage to watercraft, and damage to other natural or man-made marine structures such as docks, boatlifts, etc., occurs when there is uninterrupted wave and wake turbulence. Wave attenuation systems, which are typically objects or structures that reduce or weaken wave energy by interrupting the flow of water through or past the structure, are employed to reduce or weaken the waves thereby reducing the potential damage done by the waves.
Wave attenuation systems, also know as breakwaters, can be either a fixed barrier or floating type. Fixed barrier systems are well known and as the name suggests are fixed to the bottom of the body of water. These systems can be made of stone, concrete, steel, armorstone, etc., and can be a defined, fabricated wall or merely a large pile of material. Because these systems are anchored into the bottom or by the mass of weight, they provide a rigid object that reflects wave energy.
Floating type breakwaters, as the name suggests, float in the water and need to be anchored to the bottom. Currently, commercially available floating systems are either concrete or plastic constructed systems. The concrete systems use a buoyant center, such as Styrofoam blocks to provide flotation and then pour concrete vertical side wave attenuation walls and possible a top wall to provide weight and strength to the system. These systems work much like fixed barrier breakwaters in that they provide a flat surface that is used to reflect wave energy. Some of the problems with concrete systems are that they are extremely expensive (some costing up to $15-20,000 per foot) and most are poured and built on site, which requires a large amount of equipment and labor.
Plastic wave attenuation systems use numerous hollow plastic modules, which can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, that are all connected together to form the breakwater. Although some of the wave energy will be reflected by the surfaces of the plastic modules, these systems typically work by making the water beneath the surface change direction and move through the maze like spaces between the modules, which disrupts and dissipates the wave energy. One of the major problems with current plastic wave attenuation systems is that they do not have any useable above water surface, such as a dock or raft surface or some concrete floating breakwaters, and cannot be used for anything other than a wave attenuator.
Therefore, there is a need for an efficient, low cost, easily installed and maintained floating wave attenuation system that provides a useable above water surface and can be used for additional purposes such as a work area for docking or mooring water craft.